Mirudhula Karthik had an unusual wish for a 10-year-old - that her body should be handed over to a medical college for research. She lived with a congenital defect.
Mirudhula's heart was on the right side. And, she had many attendant complications.
Mirudhula died at a private hospital in the city on Wednesday.
But, her parents decided to fulfil her wish that her body should be used for research.
A relative of the girl, C.R.S. Ravishankar said on Thursday that she had expressed her wish to her parents, S. Karthik and K. Madhuraja, who run a printing unit.
“She seemed to have been influenced by conversation among adults on body donation. Her parents also supported her and then it became a joint decision. They thought that doctors and medical students who studied her condition at the college would be able to use this case to find a remedy later for similar problems. Surprisingly for a such a young girl, Mirudhula had also said that what she would do [the donation] might help in saving young children like her later,” Mr. Ravishankar said.
“Soon after she died, we got in touch with the authorities at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital for the body donation,” he said.
Doctors in the U.S., who examined her a few years ago, said it was a miracle that she lived despite the wrong position of the heart.
Later, she underwent a surgery in Chennai that made her live for some more years.
She was said to have developed complications in the stomach recently and admitted to a private hospital recently in the city, where she died. “Through this, we want people to know that donating the body for research is not wrong,” Mr. Ravishankar said.
Authorities at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital said the internal organs of the body with congenital problems would be filmed for study.
The body itself would be studied by doctors and medicos, they said
Keywords: Mirudhula Karthik, congenital defect:, research
